


I'm Learning To Hold On

by BlueBloodBlueHeart



Category: Milo Murphy's Law
Genre: Balthazar Cavendish's Death, Bureau of Time Travel (Milo Murphy's Law), Canon Compliant, Fluff, Headcanon, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24385927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueBloodBlueHeart/pseuds/BlueBloodBlueHeart
Summary: One of their earlier missions together, Dakota and Cavendish learn that maybe the other isn't as unbearable as they thought.
Relationships: Balthazar Cavendish & Vinnie Dakota, Balthazar Cavendish/Vinnie Dakota
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	I'm Learning To Hold On

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! My first MML fic. I've actually written a few others that I haven't posted and half a bunch of others unfinished but I kind of like how this one came out so *jazz hands* if you like it make sure to leave a kudos and a comment, they make me feel good!

Bright turquoise eyes search a pair of mismatched eyes with intruige, a sense of wariness and a feeling unable to be placed.  
Brown and blue eyes search dazzling blue ones with excitement, a growing fondness and the urge to smile.  
Neither of them know yet that they'll love each other, partly because they aren't yet in love and partly because you don't realize you're in love until that one moment where everything falls into place.

"Just because we accidentally destroyed Earth's second moon we're being placed on some sorry excuse of a mission keeping an eye on an _empty field_. Block has to understand it was an accident!" Cavendish whined, leaning back in the seats of their new time vehicle. New for them at least, it was pretty obvious the thing was more duct tape than original parts. Dakota snorted, taking a sip of the cheap gas station fountain pop they had grabbed almost an hour ago.  
"Block doesn't believe in accidents Stretch. He's the kinda guy who thinks if something goes wrong then there was a way it could have _not_ gone wrong and we're responsible for that whether the 'wrong' is on purpose or not." Dakota explained, reaching into a bag by his feet and pulling out a bad of plain chips. A brand that had been discontinued _years_ before he was born but they probably weren't the worst things in the world. Dakota's rule, you eat when you're hungry whether the food is good or not. And when you're hungry more often than not you tend to get a good grasp on 'bad' food.  
"Stop calling me that." Cavendish huffed, looking at Dakota with a grimace on his face.  
"Callin' ya' what." Asked Dakota, mouth full off chips. Definitely in the edible range of bad food. As he spoke crumbs sprayed from his mouth and Cavendish looked as if he were going to murder Dakota.  
"Stretch. I have a name you know." Casting his gaze back out the window Cavendish crossed his arms over his chest, trying not to think about the slob of a partner he was almost definitely stuck with after the last mission. He had spoken with Block about it and he said he would see what he could do, since they had a pretty good track record. And then the moon accident happened and Block made a comment about screw ups being a pair. Yeah, reassignment didn't look promising.  
"Look, _Stretch_ ," Dakota cast a teasing glance at Cavendish, using the nickname to try and bug him, "your real name is boring and long as hell. Ballpark Caviar or whatever it was. I'm sticking with Stretch."  
"I cannot believe I'm stuck working with you. You don't even have the common decency to listen when someone asks something of you."  
"Hey! I listened, I just ain't doing what you want. You're free to give me a nickname." Dakota offered.  
"That's something you want though, you have been practically been begging me to give you one." Dakota couldn't deny that, since they'd first been assigned to one another he'd talked about it almost non stop. He was about to respond with another teasing remark when all of a sudden a big explosion lit up the night around them, shaking the car and sending dirty flying through the air.  
"What the devil's was that?!" Cavendish exclaimed, as if Dakota would know.  
"Hell if I know Stretch, it definitely came from something in the field we were supposed to be watching though."  
"Curses. Come on Dakota, we have to check it out." Before Dakota even had a chance to argue Cavendish was out of the car and charging into the dark. With a sigh Dakota took after him.

A large crater was practically all that was left of the field, small fires scattered here and there. What caught Cavendish's eye though was a strange shining coming from the centre of the crater, noticeably different from the fires.  
"Jesus Stretch! You can't just take off like that, I'm not in good enough shape to be running willy nilly" Dakota huffed, coming to a stop beside Cavendish as he tried to catch his breath. Cavendish wasn't paying attention to his partner though, still staring at the strange glow as he saw a figure cross in front of it.  
"There's something here. We have to see what it is before authorities arrive and we'll have to write a report on another failed mission."  
"You read the mission report didn't you?" Dakota asked, looking in pain as Cavendish continued walking.  
"You didn't?"  
"That doesn't matter, was anything about this in there?"  
"I did read it, all it said was to watch this field and keep intruders away. I assume whatever was here was classified and we couldn't know about it. I don't know why though." Cavendish pondered aloud, continuing to mutter to himself. All of a sudden he was yanked backwards by Dakota, causing him to loose his balance and fall to the ground.  
"Dakota what in the-" barely a second later the ground a few paces ahead of them split open and lead into God knows where. Turning to Dakota with confusion Cavendish realized he was a lot more disheveled than he was a moment ago, jacket torn in a few places and covered in dust. One of the frames in his glasses were cracked and he looked terribly shaken, staring at the strange opening in the ground as if worried it would grow and swallow them.  
"How did you know that was going to happen? As far as I can tell there were no signs of it." Cavendish said, getting back on his feet and brushing himself off. Dakota hadn't moved at all, after a few more times of Cavendish calling his name he turned away from the hole with an apologetic smile.  
"Sorry, you just pick up on some things after being in the field a bit longer. Now c'mon, it'll lead us inside." And as quickly as Dakota had changed he was back to himself, except for the fact he was leading the way and suddenly saying things that Cavendish had no idea where he learned.  
"Inside what?" Cavendish asked, standing beside Dakota to look into the split in the ground. There was a strange glow similar to what Cavendish had seen earlier and from what he could see in the light it almost looked like a small room.  
"Underground bunker, secret lab stuff. Y'know." Dakota said as if it explained anything, slowly lowering himself into the gap.  
"And _how_ do you know that?" After a moment Cavendish followed suit, and they both found themselves in a small room that looked like a tornado had hit it. It looked kind of like it had been a living quarters.  
"Educated guess. A-anyway, if we wanna figure this out we should hurry. Just keep an eye out Stretch, I think there're some bad guys lurking around." Something about Dakota had changed, it reminded Cavendish that Dakota had been a time agent almost a whole year longer than Cavendish had. Out of the two Dakota was the more experienced, something you couldn't tell unless you saw them like this. Dakota taking the lead. Dakota figuring things out. Dakota being the competent one. A strange feeling fluttered in Cavendish's chest as he looked at Dakota. It was hard to believe this was the same man getting chips everywhere in their car not an hour earlier.

After a little while of exploring the bunker they came across a room a lot less damaged than the rest.  
"We can probably find some information in here." Cavendish said, wandering around the almost undisturbed lab. Stray papers were left everywhere, a few shattered test tubes here and there, there was a white board at one end of the room that had some chemical formula on it.  
"I mean what are we even looking for?" Dakota asked, skimming a paper talking about transmogrification.  
"Whatever this place is and what it did." Cavendish explained, looking through a small pile of papers. With a sigh Dakota went to the lockers pressed against one of the walls, thankfully none of them were locked. He was hoping to find something to use as a weapon, since Cavendish had run off so quick they hadn't been able to grab any of their weapons. Even if they had only the bare minimum equipment it was better than nothing. By the fourth locker of lab safety equipment Dakota was loosing hope. Then low and behold, he came across something that wasn't safety stuff. It wasn't a weapon either but it looked rather intruiging. It was a small container with a single pistachio in it, a label on it reading " _exterminator_ ".  
Curiosity getting the better of him Dakota opened it and grabbed the nut, trying to see if it was just a normal pistachio or what.  
" **Self destruct sequence in t-minus five minutes**." A loud robotic voice called out, scaring the two agents. Dakota dropped the nut and it ended up bouncing into a crack in the ground.  
"Aw nuts," Dakota muttered, before turning to Cavendish, "you find anything Stretch?"  
"No. Dakota we can't leave yet! We haven't figured anything out!" Cavendish argued as Dakota started making his way towards the door.  
"Are you kidding? I didn't break the rules just for you to choose to get blown up here!"  
"What?"  
"Nevermind. Look we gotta go. Just getting back onto the surface will be enough."  
"And how do you know that Mr. Being-strangely-vague-and-all-knowing?"  
"If it's a self destruct I assume it's only gonna destroy the base. Now come _on!_ " Taking one last look at the room Cavendish sighed before following Dakota out of the room. With some kind of miraculous luck they managed to find the room they came in through.  
"How are we supposed to get out?" Cavendish said, looking up at the gap in the ceiling, surviving this horrendous mission was just out of reach. Literally. Everything in the room that would give enough height was bolted to the ground.  
"I'll lift you up." Dakota said, kneeling and locking his fingers together, ready to helps Cavendish up.  
"But what about you?" Cavendish asked, looking hesitantly between Dakota's hands and his eyes.  
"You can pull me out. Now c'mon Stretch, we don't got a lot of time." Cavendish swallowed before nodding and, using Dakota as a stepping stool, managing to pull his way out of the room. Once he was out he leaned back down and held his hand out as far as it would go, knowing they had probably little over a minute left before the bunker was destroyed.  
"Grab my hand!"  
"Duh." Dakota snorted, reaching out and managing to grasp Cavendish's wrist. Somehow Cavendish managed to pull Dakota out back onto the surface, both of them laying there panting. Suddenly the bunker exploded, not harming anything above ground somehow but because of the crack in the ground all of the air rushed out and blew Dakota and Cavendish a little ways away.  
Cavendish's clothes were messed up and Dakota's were practically twice as bad as they were when the hole in the ground first opened.  
"A-are you alright?" Cavendish asked, brushing himself off and looking over at Dakota.  
"Bit sore but I'll be fine. Gonna have to get some new glasses though." He sighed, removing the tinted lenses from his face. Cavendish's eyes widened as he caught sight of the one brown and one blue eye.  
"You have heterochromia?" Cavendish said, not fully realizing he said it aloud until Dakota looked at him with a smirk.  
"Yep. Mix matched eyes. Wear the glasses so people can't tell."  
"But... why?" Cavendish sat on the ground, still a little hypnotized by Dakota's striking eyes.  
"Got a lot of crap for it when I was a kid. Don't want people to think I'm weird or anything." Dakota said, holding out a hand to helps Cavendish up.  
"That's stupid. Your eyes are beautiful." The words slipped out before Cavendish even thought them. The words almost seemed to echo around them, hanging in the air as neither of them knew what else to say.  
"Thanks," Dakota paused, the ghost of a smile on his face when he says, "Cavendish. Now, let's head home. I could go for some good food." Dakota said with a smile, ignoring the way his heart was beating triple time.  
"But what about the report?" Cavendish asked, still following after Dakota.  
"Block is gonna throw a fit when he hears about this one. I'd rather put that off as long as possible. Now, you want Chinese or Mexican food?"  
"Are those the only two food groups in your mind?" Cavendish asked, unwilling to admit a small smile was tugging at his lips.  
"Well, I like to think of it as food groups and then subgroups. Ya' know? Like breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, midnight snack. Then you break it down into different kindsa foods like pub food, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, French, ect." Dakota explained, leading the way back to the car.

They might not yet know it's love. But they know to cherish it. To hold it. To never let go. As if instinctually their subconscious knew that without the other they would be incomplete. Half of a pair.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so my idea for how Cavendish died. He fell into the room, breaking his ankle. He tells Dakota not to climb down and goes to explore, finding the room. He is convinced he'll find something and ends up staying in there until the base is destroyed. Then the whole Dakota saves Cavendish thing. Also, the pistachio Dakota finds ends up being the reason all the pistachios go extinct and there's absolutely no way to stop it. No one knows that though so Dakota and Cavendish would still be stuck on Pistachio duty


End file.
